Bald Hills Radiator
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Bald Hills Radiator is a
radio transmission Radio is the technology of telecommunication, communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...
centre at 99 Kluver St, Bald Hills,
City of Brisbane The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of Greater Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. The LGAs in the other mainland state capitals ...
, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as the National Broadcasting Service Radio Transmission Centre. It is listed on the
Brisbane Heritage Register The Brisbane Heritage Register is a heritage register containing a list of culturally-significant places within the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mai ...
. The centre transmits all the
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmi ...
programmes of the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
(ABC) . The site and infrastructure is now owned by
BAI Communications BAI Communications, formerly Broadcast Australia, is an Australian telecommunications systems company. History Macquarie Group, Macquarie Bank completed its acquisition of National Transmission Agency in 2002 – the seed asset in the publicly ...
who are contracted to broadcast
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radio and TV signals nationally.


History


Prior to the 1940s: 4QG and 4QR

Initially, radio transmission was totally from within the Brisbane city centre. The first transmitter for radio station 4QG was located in an inner
courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...
in the Executive Building in the Brisbane city centre. Operated by the
Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...
, it started transmitting in 1925. A more powerful transmitter replaced it in 1926, on the eighth floor of the then new State Government Insurance Building (from 1933 known as the Taxation building) at the corner of
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and
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Streets. The involvement of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (now the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC) started in 1930, with the
Postmaster General's Department The Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) was a department of the Australian federal government, established at Federation in 1901, whose responsibilities included the provision of postal and telegraphic services throughout Australia. It was ...
(PMG) being responsible for technical operation. Major modifications were made to the transmitter during the ABC's use of the transmitter. In 1935, a survey team from the Postmaster General (PMG) Research Laboratories in
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
selected the Bald Hills site, then a farm, as a future location for a possibly high-powered transmitter for 4QG, but no land acquisition occurred at that time. At that stage radio station 4QG had been in existence for ten years (since 27 July 1925), and the National Broadcasting Service (NBS, later the ABC) for five years (since 31 January 1930). Radio station 4QR was officially opened in 1938, with transmission from the roof of the Central Automatic Exchange Building in Elizabeth Street.


The move to Bald Hills

At the start of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Brisbane's skyline was dominated by five high aerial towers, of which two served 4QG and one 4QR. A further two towers served commercial stations. Land acquisitions for the current Bald Hills site commenced in 1940. The first aerial was erected on the site in 1941; it was constructed from and bore casing and was high. The transmitter building was made of brick with a
fibro Asbestos cement, genericized as fibro, fibrolite (short for "fibrous (or fibre) cement sheet", but different from the sillimanite , natural mineral fibrolite), or AC sheet, is a composite building material consisting of cement and asbestos fi ...
roof. It was built by Thomas Frederick of Days Road, Wilston, under a contract awarded in July 1941, and work had started by October 1941. The farm buildings were removed at about this time. In March 1942
General Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army. He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of ...
arrived in Australia to be appointed supreme commander of the Allied Forces in the
South-West Pacific Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...
. The AMP Building in Queen Street, Brisbane, (now the MacArthur Chambers) was chosen for MacArthur's headquarters because of its central location and
reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...
roof. It was feared that the presence of all these high aerial towers would act as a navigational aid for Japanese aircraft seeking to attack MacArthur's headquarters. This accelerated the need to shift the transmitters out of the city centre. The first transmission from the Bald Hills site was of 4QR, on 24 March 1942, using the transmitter moved the previous night from the Central Telephone Exchange in the city. In April 1942, the 4QG transmitter was also relocated to Bald Hills but not to this site but to another Bald Hills site leased from the commercial station 4BH. Known as Fischle's Jam Factory, the 4BH site was at Roghan Road near Neville Road, next to Fischle's. Bald Hills residents of the time were not impressed by this transfer of risk of Japanese attack to their area. As the Queensland segment of the National Broadcasting Service (NBS) was restricted to Brisbane,
Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...
and
Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...
, it was proposed to use high frequency (
short wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...
) transmission to give some cover to the rest of Queensland. VLQ first went to air on 17 February 1943, transmitted by STCA880A. Land acquisitions for the present site continued through to July 1943 when the
Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...
resumed the 114 acre (46ha) property from J W Guy. The transmitter building was extended from 1945 to 1946, while the existing vertical radiator was erected in 1947. The building was further extended 1962, and has since been internally modified at least twice when equipment was upgraded: once in 1968 and again in about 1994. In two later stages, (c 1970, 1980) there were minor reductions in the land holding of the site, for road widening and subdivisional redevelopment. The current area of the site is 43ha.


Description

The National Broadcasting Service Radio Transmission Centre is an approximately site at 99 Kluver Street on the corner of Bracken Ridge Road, Bald Hills, facing west into Kluver Street and bounded by Taragon Street in the south and Hoyland Street in the east. The VLQ STCA880A transmitter is a very early model high powered (10 kW) high frequency transmitter. It is built from very old technology, its design and construction pre-dating both the
transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
and the
silicon chip An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...
. Relying on extremely large glass and metal radio valves, the final
amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It is a two-port electronic circuit that uses electric power from a power su ...
valves requiring a water cooling system, the transmitter in operation presented a truly awesome appearance when in operation, supplemented by a sound effect as the cooling system pump and fan operated. In a paper presented to the Institution of Engineers, Australia shortly before his death, Sanderson wrote:
"These early units with prolific meters and open mesh panels, behind which the large glass transmitting valves glowed cherry red, contrasting with the strange blue pulsating plasmas of the mercury vapour rectifiers, had a personality and character which is totally lacking in the sterile steel boxes, the state of the art highly complex, almost non repairable transmitters of the 90s."
Particular qualities of the STCA880A are its robustness and its reliability, evidenced by the decades of high quality service it gave before it was finally retired, mainly because the valves vital for its operation finally went out of production. It was in either full-time or reserve service for forty five years, from 1943 until 1988. The Bald Hills unit was the third of its type, preceded by one at Laverton and another at
Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...
, both for the
RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the governor-general of Aus ...
. It was the first NBS short wave transmitter in Queensland and the second in Australia. Its NBS predecessor, code named VLR, was operated from
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
. It was not of the same type. To cool the anodes of the power output valves, duplicate pumps powered by 3–4 hp 2,900 RPM three-phase electric motors were installed in an adjoining room. A fan cooled external radiator was installed on a
patio A patio (, ; ) is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a structure and is typically paved. In Australia, the term is expanded to include roofed structures such as a veranda, which provides protection from sun ...
adjacent to the pump room. As the anodes operate at 12,000 volts, low conductivity cooling water was essential, and a still was installed to ensure a continual supply. The existing main vertical radiator is a triangular section lattice steel structure, 204m high and with 8 ft (2.44m) sides, guyed at four levels in three directions. The earth system consists of 120 copper wire buried radials, each 200m long. The mast was energised by separate six wire lines, each 460m long but these have been replaced with an underground low-loss
coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ), is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner Electrical conductor, conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting Electromagnetic shielding, shield, with the two separated by a dielectric (Insulat ...
. The antenna is a Dual-frequency Anti-fading design built to radiate two frequencies simultaneously(612 KHz & 792 kHz) and minimise the
skywave In radio communication, skywave or skip refers to the propagation of radio waves reflected or refracted back toward Earth from the ionosphere, an electrically charged layer of the upper atmosphere. Since it is not limited by the curvatur ...
to reduce fading at the fringes of
ground wave Ground wave is a mode of radio propagation that consists of currents traveling through the earth. Ground waves propagate parallel to and adjacent to the surface of the Earth, and are capable of covering long distances by diffracting around the E ...
coverage at night Two smaller masts have also been erected at the site, one being to radiate the
ABC NewsRadio ABC NewsRadio, since 2017 broadcast under the ABC News brand and for a short time known as ABC News on Radio, is a 24-hour news radio service broadcast by the Australian public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). ABC ...
service and the other as a standby mast for the 200m main mast. The main building lies on the western (high) side of the site. It was first used to accommodate the 4QR transmitter, which was shifted overnight on 23–24 March 1942. Other buildings include: * the foreman mechanic's residence, 1944 * the emergency engine house, 1950 * the coupling hut, 1962 * the transmitters Other original transmitters at the site included: * Stand by (10 kW) 4SU-11A (1948 * Stand by (2 kW) 4SU-16C (1951; ex 4QN
Clevedon Clevedon (, ) is a seaside town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, England. It recorded a parish population of 21,281 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, estimated at 21,442 in 2019. It lies ...
, 1960) * 4QG main (10 kW) 4SU-64 (1963) * 4QR main (50 kW) 4SU-38 (1963) The
medium wave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytim ...
transmitters were eventually replaced with solid-state Nautel ND series transmitters that use a
Class-D amplifier A class-D amplifier, or switching amplifier, is an electronic amplifier in which the amplifying devices (transistors, usually MOSFETs) operate as electronic switches, and not as linear gain devices as in other amplifiers. They operate by rapidl ...
containing
MOSFET upright=1.3, Two power MOSFETs in amperes">A in the ''on'' state, dissipating up to about 100 watt">W and controlling a load of over 2000 W. A matchstick is pictured for scale. In electronics, the metal–oxide–semiconductor field- ...
devices. The shortwave transmitters were then decommissioned, the VLQ9 and VLM4 services were discontinued and the shortwave
curtain array Curtain arrays are a class of large multielement directional radio transmitting wire antennas, used in the short-wave radio bands. They constitute a type of reflective array antenna, consisting of multiple wire dipole antennas, suspended in a ...
antennas removed.


Condition

The original VLQ transmitter is completely preserved and housed in its original 1943 location.


Significance

The VLQ transmitter STCA880A (1943) constructed for the National Broadcasting Service was the first high frequency transmitter in Queensland and the second in Australia. It is the last of its type in the world and is a relic of a period when high frequency (short wave) transmissions were the most favoured means of broadcasting to country areas. It was used extensively on broadcasts to
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
. It was at the vanguard of the era of shortwave transmission which started when it and the Bald Hills centre were both new. It illustrates an important phase of the very rapid development of the National Broadcasting Service's Queensland operations. This phase began at a relatively early stage in the history of the radio broadcasting in Australia. It enabled access for the first time to radio services for communities in inland and remote centres, thereby reducing their isolation. The transmitter is of totally Australian design and has a very high content of Australian manufacture, only meters and valves being imported. Its operation was
water cooled Cooling tower and water discharge of a nuclear power plant Water cooling is a method of heat removal from components and industrial equipment. Evaporative cooling using water is often more efficient than air cooling. Water is inexpensive and non ...
, a technological practice of the time and was in either full-time or reserve service for forty five years, from 1943 until 1988. It is completely preserved, housed in its original 1943 location. The transmitter is a very significant historical relic, as it is probably the only surviving specimen of this very interesting short wave transmitter type. The design by STC dates from the late 1930s. It has been recommended that the equipment should be retained as a broadcasting heritage exhibit. The other transmitters on the site form, with STCA880A, Australia's largest collection under one roof of retired and operating radio transmitters. Dating from 1948 or possibly earlier, they are, except for one recovered from 4QN Clevedon in 1960, in their original locations. The significance of the site lies essentially in its connection with the transmitters. The aerial, erected in 1947, has become a very well known local landmark. Their significance attaches to the transmitting equipment housed in the main building, a unit purpose built in 1941–42 and modified or extended on at least four occasions since.


Legacy

Two series of photographs were taken of the erection of the first aerial in 1941 and of its spectacular demolition in 1987. These, with annotations by the late Douglas Sanderson, were presented by the
Institution of Engineers Australia Engineers Australia (EA), known formally as the Institution of Engineers, Australia, is an Australian professional body and Non-profit organization, not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineerin ...
, to the
John Oxley Library State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, which draws its powers from ...
in 1994.


References


Bibliography

* Letter 2/5/1992 from DG Sanderson to IEAust, Queensland Division Heritage Panel. * "Bald Hills Heritage Tour" Brisbane History Group 1993, Item 7. * Sanderson, D.G. "History and Heritage of Broadcasting" in Engineering Update, August–November 1994, published by the Queensland Division, Institution of Engineers. * Sanderson, D.G. "On Air" page references (unpublished typescript). History of the NBS in Queensland and Papua-New Guinea, 1930–1988.


Attribution


Further reading

*


External links

* {{Cite web, url=http://bpadula.tripod.com/australiashortwave/id50.html, title=1941 - ABC Brisbane, last=, first=, date=, website=The History of Shortwave Radio in Australia, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180910081423/http://bpadula.tripod.com/australiashortwave/id50.html, archive-date=10 September 2018, url-status=live, access-date=10 September 2018 Bald Hills, Queensland Radio masts and towers in Australia Articles incorporating text from the Australian Heritage Database Brisbane Local Heritage Register